IPL 2018: KKR vs MI Match Report

In Match 41 of IPL 2018 was a crucial encounter between the Mumbai Indians and the Kolkata Knight Riders. KKR needed this win to secure their berth in the playoffs and Mumbai needed to win to depose KKR. To say that the match was a thrashing would be an understatement. Kolkata won the toss and opted to bowl first, putting MI to bat.

Suryakumar Yadav and Evin Lewis got off the blocks quickly until Lewis was caught out for 18 runs. Yadav was then joined by skipper Rohit Sharma until Yadav departed for 36. Rohit Sharma too went out for 36 runs. Mumbai then cranked up the pressure by a notch when Ishan Kishan took to the crease. With five 4s and six 6s, the youngster raced to a half century. In the end, it took Sunil Narine and Robin Uthappa to subdue Kishan for 62 runs. Hardik Pandya scored 19 and Ben Cutting managed 28 runs. Finally, Krunal Pandya remained not out on 8 runs.

Mumbai set a daunting target of 210 for the Knight Riders. When the Kolkata batting innings began, they were literally demolished. The opening partnership of Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn was broken with the former sent back for 4 runs. Robin Uthappa replaced him and both were sent packing for 21 and 14 respectively. Nitish Rana could also manage 21 runs before being dismissed by Hardik Pandya.

Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik, Rinku Singh, all departed for 2, 5 and 5 respectively. Tom Curran managed to sneak into the double digits before returning to the dugout for 18 runs, Piyush Chawla was dispatched for 11 in the meantime. Despite the momentous news of being included in the Test squad for Afghanistan, Kuldeep Yadav could not translate his jubilation into his batting and was out for just 5 runs. The only survivor of the onslaught was Prasidh Krishna who only had one run to his name. KKR had scored 108 runs, way short on their intended target.

In the bowling department, Sunil Narine was the most economical bowler, with a rate of 6.75 and 27 runs conceded. The likes of Prasidh Krishna, Tom Curran, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav were punished heavily, with Yadav bearing most of the brunt. He ended up with figures of 14.33 in 3 overs.

Of the Mumbai bowlers, Mitchell McClenaghan had the worst economy of 8.00 in 3 overs and conceding 24 runs. But that didn’t matter one bit as the KKR batting crumbled in a big way.